Durham officials and advocates are reeling after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported a Durham-based family of four earlier this week.
The two children, Genesis Elizabeth Espinoza Pacheco and Denis Daniel Espinoza Pacheco, were students at Durham’s Burton Elementary School. They were detained on Monday with their parents, Nelson Ramon Espinoza Sierra and Dacia Mariela Pacheco Galindo, during a regular appointment with immigration authorities in Charlotte.
A spokesperson for ICE confirmed the family was deported to Honduras just two days later.
“This family was lured into the check-in office under a false pretense of safety,” Siembra NC defense manager Andreina Malki said at a press conference Thursday. “And they were ripped away from their lives, from their school, and deported in about 48 hours.” Siembra NC, an immigrant advocacy organization, organized the conference to call attention to and condemn the deportation.
Per Siembra, the children’s aunt, Lillian, went with the family to Monday’s appointment in Charlotte and waited outside for over 90 minutes. Then, Lillian received a call from a federal agent saying that her sister’s family had been detained. Per ICE, the family was deported on Wednesday. Lillian said she found out later, on Thursday. (A family member, via Siembra NC, declined to speak to media during Thursday’s press conference.)
At the press conference, advocates and elected officials called the detention unwarranted and tragic.
“While this incident didn’t happen on our campus, we know we’re all impacted by what is happening to the neighbors in our community—a father, a mother, a daughter, a sister, brother,” said Durham Public Schools Board of Education Chair Bettina Umstead. “And this overreach of federal law enforcement around immigration is impacting us all.”
Some local officials have promised to attend future immigration appointments with families.
“We will be witnesses, and to the extent possible, we will document what is happening, and we will help to provide rapid response assistance,” said state senator Sophia Chitlik. “We might not be able to stop what is happening, but we can ensure that we can expose it, and we can call for the transparency that our law necessitates.”
According to Siembra NC, the family had been seeking asylum in the United States since 2022 and had fully “honored the conditions of their asylum case including attending regular check-ins” over the last four years.
In an emailed statement to INDY, a spokesperson for ICE said that the family “was issued a final order of removal by a judge after they failed to show up for their immigration hearing,” which a spokesperson clarified in a phone call with INDY was separate from their Monday appointment in Charlotte.
Last November, Customs and Border Protection agents detained at least a dozen people in the Triangle as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase deportation numbers. The operation prompted fears among members of Durham’s immigrant community, many of whom kept their kids home from school. Elected officialss at the schools, city, and county levels have worked with organizations like Siembra NC to try to create a unified resistance, but this week’s swift deportation shows how difficult that may be.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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